Tradition!

The days leading up to Christmas found us tracking packages from our son Dan’s family. Some came here some went to Post Office as undeliverable, some went to Post Office into the Gate Guard Service’s Post Office box. Dan had given us all of the tracking numbers and it was kinda fun tracking the progress of each package! LOL We’re easily amused.

Ready for the oven!

I did a little bit of baking on Tuesday/Wednesday – fudge, peanut butter blossoms and my mom’s Pecan Dreams. I made some plates of goodies for everyone in the yard, which is just 5 other campers besides us and two of those are the service guys for this yard and delivered them on Wednesday afternoon. I think everyone was a bit shocked but seemed pleased to receive the goodies.

and now ready for delivery!

We rented some movies from Redbox (Self/Less, Mr. Holmes, War Room) in the days leading up to Christmas. We watched and enjoyed each one in between chores and baking projects. All three turned out to be very good movies and we’d highly recommend each of them.

Since Michael and I have ‘been on our own’ (after the boys moved out) we’ve spent many of our holidays going out to some sort of a buffet (usually a Ryan’s or something similar) and enjoying a couple of movies at the theater. Since we weren’t on a gate this year we decided to keep that tradition alive as we both really enjoy it.

We drove over to Eagle Pass (on the Mexican border) and partook of the buffet at the New China Buffet. As it turned out we weren’t the only ones that decided to have Chinese on Christmas Eve as there were quite a few people there.

There was a fairly large selection of food and the flavors were pretty good but most everything was luke warm. I could have understood that had it been in between dinner hours but we were there right around noon….so in my opinion there was no excuse.

The movie theater was just across the street in the mall and our first move, “In the Heart of the Sea” started at 1:25 pm so we had just enough time to find a seat and settle in before the previews started.

Michael really enjoyed the movie…me? Not so much. The movie took place on the rolling seas (of course!) and just like with the movie “The Life of Pi” I ended up getting seasick and had to sit with my eyes closed for at least half of the movie and just listen to the audio which is not fun at all! I really have to remember to bring/take some Dramamine with me!

May the Force be with you….

We had just enough time between the two movies to take a potty break, get some refreshments, find a seat and settle in before the previews started for the next movie, “Star Wars“…perfect timing!

I was feeling a bit better…still not great…but well enough to enjoy some popcorn at least. I was a bit worried that any ‘flight scenes’ might bring the sickness on again so anytime they started flying around I closed my eyes and Michael let me know when it was safe to open them again! LOL

The Wisconsin Barnett’s

We both enjoyed the movie. I enjoy the Star Wars movies but am by no means a ‘buff’ so I have a hard time remembering what happened when, who’s who, what’s what etc. I guess at some point we should get all of the movies and have a marathon and rekindle some old memories!

The Utah Barnett’s

We had a very nice, quiet Christmas Day sleeping until after 8:00 am. We spent time opening gifts with each of our boys families via video chat in the morning. It’s so fun to watch the babies open their gifts as everything in the eyes is wonderful! While we received wonderful gifts I enjoyed the time we spent with each family more than anything.

Prepared to enjoy his feast

Per Michael’s request I made a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, cranberries and our families traditional fruit salad for dinner. We also had chocolate cake and pumpkin pie for dessert. I made up a plate for Shawn, the supervisor of the yard and our service tech and Michael took it over to him.

My day was topped off with an hour and a half long phone call with my sister, Vicki. We talk so seldom that our infrequent calls to one another turn into marathon sessions trying to pack everything into one call and then I still find things I forgot to say when we hang up. I think we need to make a New Years resolution to try to talk once a month…what do ya think, Vic?